News

February 22, 2011

We pay our taxes. Why don’t they?

U.S. Uncut is a new progressive, people-powered advocacy organization whose aims include ensuring corporations pay their fair share of income tax on the revenue they make instead of hiding it offshore.

On February 26, demonstrations across the United States and the United Kingdom are taking place to bring awareness to the practices of these huge companies, including demonstrations at Bank of America, Target, Amazon, and Comcast:

Enjoying record profits and taxpayer-funded bailouts as the economy slowly recovers from a financial crisis, nearly two-thirds of US corporations don’t pay any income taxes, instead opting to abuse tax loopholes and offshore tax havens. According to this study from the non-partisan Government Accountability Office, 83 of the top 100 publicly traded corporations that operate in the US exploit corporate tax havens. Since 2009, America’s most profitable companies such as ExxonMobil, General Electric, Bank of America and Citigroup all paid a grand total of $0 in federal income taxes to Uncle Sam. Tax havens alone account for up to $1 trillion in tax revenue lost every decade, money that could be invested in K-12 education, colleges, public health, job creation and hundreds of other worthy public programs.

You read that right. Charlotte-based Bank of America has paid ZERO, ZIP, ZILCH in federal income taxes since 2009, despite having received $45 billion in tax-payer supported income. Instead of paying taxes, BofA funneled its income to 115 separate offshore bank accounts while it lavished bank executives with bonuses.

Answer the call to Action in Charlotte on Saturday (2/26)

We pay taxes on the money we make in our state and in our nation. That money pays for our common defense, paves our streets and highways, affords police, fire, and other emergency responders, protects our air and water from pollution, and pays our teachers and builds our schools to educate our children. Ask yourself:

Why are these corporate tax dodgers not also paying their fair share?

How many more public sector workers will lose their jobs because of our state and federal budget deficits?

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The North Carolina State AFL-CIO is the largest association of local unions and union councils in North Carolina, representing over one-hundred and forty-thousand union members, fighting for good jobs, safe workplaces, workers’ rights, consumer protections, and quality public services on behalf of ALL working people.